Complaint of Teamsters against county rejected

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington state regulators on Monday rejected a complaint filed by Teamsters Local 690 alleging Lincoln County’s commissioners violated the law this past summer when they pledged to make the community’s collective bargaining process more transparent.

On September 7, the commissioners notified the union they had unanimously passed a resolution the night before stating that future contract negotiations between the county and the unions representing its workers would be open for public oversight.

In response, the Teamsters filed an unfair labor practice charge against the county asserting the resolution amounted to a unilateral change in the terms of employment for county workers and, as such, the commissioners were required to issue prior notice and negotiate its adoption with the union.

The Washington State Public Employment Resolution Commission disagreed.

“It’s not apparent that bargaining guidelines and other parameters could arguably constitute a mandatory subject for bargaining,” the Commission’s ruling stated. “At this time, the complaints lack necessary elements to qualify for further case processing…”

“There’re nothing in state law preventing a local jurisdiction from choosing to allow the public to observe its collective bargaining sessions,” noted Matt Hayward, outreach coordinator for the Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based free market think tank that advised the commissioners prior to the resolution’s adoption.

“The fact that every other government in the state has given in to the unions’ demand that they be able to negotiate over taxpayer dollars behind closed doors is irrelevant,” he said. “The Lincoln County commissioners are courageously standing up to the union bullies and making their government more transparent to both taxpayers and public employees.”

“Government transparency should be the rule at every level, not the exception,” added Freedom Foundation Labor Policy Director Maxford Nelsen. “When the unions’ lawyers argue with a straight face that secret backroom deals are in the public interest, it just proves these people couldn’t care less about the public. All they care about is lining their own pockets with the taxpayers’ money.”

The union can appeal the ruling.